Automation has made its way into many aspects of our daily life. This includes emergency response. By pre-planning, you can automatically trigger an emergency notification to thousands, the delivery of emergency procedures to each recipient, the summoning of help from law enforcement and emergency medical resources, the activation of alarms, the locking of doors, and the establishment of a remote unified command. By launching a complex series of emergency response actions automatically, organizations are exponentially improving their ability to keep people safe.

During the month of October, we celebrateCrime Prevention Monthwith the National Crime Prevention Council (CPC). No matter your age, your walk of life, or the industry you’re involved, we should all be working together to help prevent crime wherever and whenever possible. Awareness and preparation are so important when it comes to protecting yourself and the people around you. Crime prevention is about keeping everyone safe. As the CPC says, “It helps ensure individuals live up to their potential no matter their way of life or where they live. It’s all about helping people keep themselves, their families, and their communities safe from crime.”

You’ve taken the first step by adopting a mass notification system that’s designed for you to help keep your people safe and informed of emergencies. Aligning your system with your emergency response and action plan is next on the list. As September is National Preparedness Month, it’s a great time to reflect and exercise your organization’s ability to notify, respond, and recover in a critical or emergency situation. Now is the time to test your emergency or mass notification system.

Automating emergency notification has been a big topic of conversation in the life safety industry for a while now. A few years ago, Omnilert launched Scenarios®. Scenarios affords organizations the opportunity to align, capture, and immediately initiate their emergency response plan’s predefined series of unique actions. Thus simplifying the response process, reducing the human input to only a few clicks. Our newest innovation, Scenarios Triggers™, takes that idea one step further by allowing you to initiate response actions automatically.

Emergencies do not happen on a clock. They can happen at any time, anywhere, and the best solution is to be proactive. Having a complete crisis communications solution in place ensures that whatever situations may arise, you are as prepared. When preparing and formulating plans, a robust mass notification system is an integral component to help facilitate the flawless orchestration of emergency communications and response - from beginning to end.

Alerting via phone and email just isn’t enough when there’s an emergency you need to inform everyone. You need to use every avenue of communication you can to ensure you reach everyone within your organization - regardless of whether they’re on the property or not. Social media can be an important means of communication for organizations before, during, and after an emergency.